Science Olympiad Team 101

 

How to get students interested:

o       Students will come to you

o       Make announcements about Science Olympiad

o       Have an open house to introduce them to Science Olympiad

o       Have team members look for new students to be on team

o       Look for the students who express interest in a certain topic area

o       Talk about all the fun involved

o       Ask other teachers to help recruit or let you talk to their classes

o       Try very hard to have at least some selection or filtering process because you want students who take Science Olympiad seriously and will prepare/train for their events, even if it means not having a full team

o       Have informal training for a few months and then choose your final team

o       Build up to a great team

o       Be prepared - students will drop out

o       After they have done it once, they will be excited and self-motivated

 

How to Get Other Teachers Involved:

o       Remember you “can’t do it all” – ask other teachers for help

o       Lull them in gently at first, just get teachers to help with one event or area that they specialize in themselves (i.e. ask choir teacher to help with Sounds of Music)

o       Have a good relationship with other teachers so they will be willing to help

o       Be specific with what you need and want them to help you with

o       Have them choose 1-2 events they would like to help with

o       Once they start helping they’ll keep coming back

 

How to Involve Parents:

• Invite them to help in their field of expertise
• Congratulate them for their students being chosen and build up Science Olympiad
• Let them know that their kids think it’s important
• Just ask if they are willing to help
• Keep communications open – so many of them will help a lot if just asked

 

How to Get Sponsors To Help With Costs:

• Keep asking nicely
• Try to get gift cards to buy supplies
• Businesses to donate (Target, Lowe’s)
• Try for grants through school districts
• Be specific with your needs when asking businesses for help
• Ask for a part of their advertising budget
• Give recognition to sponsors
• Be thankful for any help they offer

 

 

When to Practice:

• Early in the mornings-no one else is there

• you find out who’s dedicated

o       Cross train students – in case students back out

o       Use Saturdays for building events –

o       Four days a week for 1-1 ½ hours or three days a week for 45 min.

o       Have after school practices

o       Use off-campus locations if needed

o       Hand students study materials and have them study/train by themselves

o       Provide snacks once in a while and take breaks when practicing

 

Coaching Tips:

• Start small your 1^st year – just do a few events
• Let the kids get experience – they will get excited about the next year at the awards ceremony
• Let students pick their favorite events
• Do a survey for events the students want to do
• Relax & let kids have fun
• Find out as much as you can about their strengths/interests
• Integrate the events into the classroom to get kids interested – when you see someone doing a good job on an event, ask them to compete in that event on the team (recruiting)
• Give kids a copy of the rules and have them highlight what they need to bring, restrictions and any other important information
• Get permission from parents
• Keep in contact with past students so they can help you prepare your team
• Have parties to bring (unite) members of team together
• Have team identity (shirts)
• Don’t give too much team organization and responsibility - they need to focus on studies
• Academic excellence, academic preparation, dedication to the program (students should have these)

 

Other:

• FOLLOW  the EVENT RULES-read them carefully